Ex-Viking charged with felony assault

Article by: KEVIN SEIFERT and PAUL WALSH

Star Tribune

May 7, 2008 - 12:39 AM

Former Vikings defensive lineman Darrion Scott was charged Tuesday with assaulting his 2-year-old son last week by holding a plastic dry cleaning bag over the kicking and crying boy's head in his Eden Prairie townhome.

Scott, an NFL free agent who played the past four seasons with the Vikings and led the team in sacks in 2006, is charged with felony assault in the third degree, felony domestic assault by strangulation and misdemeanor endangerment of a child.

According to the criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County District Court: The boy's mother heard the child's muffled cries and found Scott, who is 6-3 and 290 pounds, holding the bag over the boy's head on April 26. She said the boy was on his back on the floor, his legs kicking and that Scott was holding the bag tightly around the boy's neck.

She told police she had evidence of previous injuries while the child was in Scott's care. A doctor who examined the boy said there is a reasonable degree of medical certainty that marks on the boy's arm and ear were intentionally inflicted and were consistent with either burning or being struck.

Scott, 26, told police the two were playing with the bag, and he wanted to see if the boy could get the bag off his head by himself. Scott was arrested last Wednesday and has been in custody at the Hennepin County jail. His first court appearance is scheduled for this afternoon.

A search of his townhome turned up a loaded .50-caliber handgun in an unlocked bedroom nightstand. The weapon would have been easily accessible to a 2-year-old, the complaint said.

Scott's agent, Tim DiPiero, said Tuesday that he stood by the statement he made last week when he called the arrest "a mistake" and said Scott will seek a speedy trial to "prove his innocence."

In the statement, DiPiero said Scott did not abuse the child involved in the case. "Anyone who knows Darrion knows him to be a big 'teddy bear' type of guy, easygoing and never loud or abrasive," DiPiero said. "We believe this nightmare is a terrible mistake and that the child has not been abused, at least not by Darrion."

A third-round pick in the 2004 draft out of Ohio State, Scott played in 48 games with the Vikings. A native of Charleston, W.Va., he was cited there for misdemeanor marijuana possession there in December following a traffic stop; Scott was on injured reserve at the time after breaking his foot in October.